Pneumatosis intestinalis (gas in the bowel wall) is often a benign condition, but it may mimic bowel ischemia or infarction and lead to unnecessary surgical intervention, especially when associated with pneumoperitoneum. We present a case of benign pneumatosis intestinalis with massive pneumoperitoneum and discuss various distinguishing features that may aid in its diagnosis.

We describe a 64 year old woman with a 3-year history of scleroderma who presented as an emergency with increasing painless abdominal distention. Radiological investigations revealed a pneumoperitoneum in the absence of either visceral perforation or pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis. This is only the fourth report of spontaneous benign pneumoperitoneum complicating scleroderma without pneumat...

Cystic pneumatosis intestinalis is a rare benign entity, characterized by intramural cysts located mainly in the intestinal wall. The etiology has not yet been elucidated, but generally it is associated with a systemic disease (1-4). Colonic pneumatosis represents about 30% of gastrointestinal cases (1). We present the case of a young girl with anorexia who underwent surgical treatment for cyst...

An additional method for differentiating between Campylobacter fetus subsp. jejuni and C. fetus subsp. intestinalis is reported. Strains of C. fetus subsp. jejuni (18/20) were shown to hydrolyze hippurate in the 2-h rapid test, whereas strains of C. fetus subsp. intestinalis did not.

Presently, the two most commonly used drugs for treating microsporidiosis in persons with AIDS are albendazole and fumagillin. Albendazole is effective for treating disseminated infections due to Encephalitozoon spp. but is variably effective against Enterocytozoon bieneusi infections. Fumagillin is highly effective when used topically to treat ocular infections with Encephalitozoon hellem or E...

Giardia intestinalis, a cosmopolitan zoonotic parasite, is one of the most common causes of protozoal diarrhea in both humans and animals worldwide. Although G. intestinalis has been detected in many animals, information regarding its prevalence and genotype in Chinese racehorses is scarce. In the present study, we investigated the prevalence of G. intestinalis in racehorses and performed molec...

In species introductions, non-native are often confronted with new niches occupied by more specialized natives, and for introduced parasites this conflict can be amplified because they also face novel hosts. Despite these obstacles, invasions of occur frequently, but the mechanisms that facilitate parasite invasion success only rarely explored. Here, we investigated how parasitic copepod Mytili...

We compared the performance of the BD Max enteric parasite panel to routine microscopy and an in-house PCR for the detection of Giardia intestinalis, Entamoeba histolytica, and Cryptosporidium spp. The enteric parasite panel showed good specificity for all targets and good sensitivity for E. histolytica and Cryptosporidium spp. Sensitivity for G. intestinalis with the BD Max enteric parasite pa...

In this study, nine organic sediment samples from a medieval archaeological site at Pineuilh, France, were examined for Giardia intestinalis using two commercially available immunological kits [enzyme-linked immuno sorbent and immunofluorescence (IFA) assays]. Both techniques detected G. intestinalis in one sample, dated to 1,000 Anno Domini. This is the first time IFA was successfully used to ...